Articles

HMG Tech News Digest December 07

Dec 6, 2018

Amazon Expanding into Data Centers with AWS Outposts

Amazon is broadening its horizons and expanding into the data center space. Andy Jassy, chief of Amazon's cloud services, confirmed last week the company will extend its reach into on-premises data centers.

The move toward data center management would add another formidable weapon to Amazon's arsenal and open up a new area in which Amazon will compete with data center incumbents such as Dell and HPE.

Did Facebook Give Data Access to Favored Customers?

A government committee in the UK released documents this week indicating that Facebook provided some of its customers with special access to user data from the social network, according to a report in The New York Times.

"The documents shine a light on Facebook's internal workings from roughly 2012 to 2015, during a period of explosive growth as the company was navigating how to manage the mountains of data it was accumulating on users," writes Adam Satariano and Mike Isaac of The New York Times. "The committee said the documents show Facebook entering into agreements with select companies to allow them access to data after the company made policy changes that restricted access for others."

In my opinion, the documents are yet another reminder of just how little control Facebook exerted over some of the data it collected from users. I predict that lawmakers in the U.S. will follow the example of their counterparts in the EU and begin looking harder at stricter regulations for protecting user data.

Qualcomm and Samsung Move Quickly to Carve Out Space in 5G Market

There's a feeling in the market that 5G will lead to radical transformation of the technology industry, forcing changes and adjustments at every level of the IT universe. The development of autonomous driving, for example, will accelerate greatly when 5G networks become widely available.

From my perspective, the impact of 5G will be enormous, but also gradual. On the consumer side, major tech firms are already lining up to grab big chunks of the nascent 5G market.

"Qualcomm, alongside partners Samsung, Verizon and AT&T, came to the Snapdragon Technology Summit this week in Maui, Hawaii, where they all talked up their plans for 5G in 2019. But Samsung and the networks did more than just talk. Verizon and AT&T set up mini 5G networks to power some demos, and Samsung showed off an early, but working, prototype of a 5G phone in a dock to run a demo at its own booth," write Jessica Dolcourt and Shara Tibken of C-NET.

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